Go outside! 
If you are spending your black Friday hiking, biking, walking, running, fishing, swinging, sliding, climbing, or anything else outside, share a photo on NPC’s Facebook page of how you opted to spend time outside.
https://www.facebook.com/events/216534375553941/
Join us at one of over 60 events being held as part of the statewide Walk in Penn’s Woods! You can hike on the Bluebird Trail in WMWA Watershed, check out the “water bugs” the County’s Watershed Specialist and Lycoming College’s Clean Water Institute collect, look for birds with Lycoming Audubon, or check out the new River Simulator (made possible by the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania and Loyalsock Creek Watershed Association). Learn about how this protected watershed helps to provide clean and abundant public water to the Greater Williamsport area.
The Cavanaugh Access is still owned by NPC, but it’s been dedicated! Thank you to the 100+ people who came out yesterday to celebrate conservation, partnership, wetlands, and trails!
Wellsboro Home Page was there and this video is a nice summary in case you couldn’t make it out.
There are several definitions of a lake. Dr. Milt Ostronfsky is a limnologist (he studies lakes) at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. In his classes a lake is “a hole in the ground that’s full of water.” Other limnologists only consider a water body a lake if the water doesn’t completely change over, or “flush,” ten times a year or more. Another definition says a lake must be at least 10 acres in surface water size.
There are several definitions of a lake. Dr. Milt Ostronfsky is a limnologist (he studies lakes) at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. In his classes a lake is “a hole in the ground that’s full of water.” Other limnologists only consider a water body a lake if the water doesn’t completely change over, or “flush,” ten times a year or more. Another definition says a lake must be at least 10 acres in surface water size
The water is lakes is layered. The top layer of water is the warmest in the spring and summer because of the sunlight hitting the surface of the water. In the winter this becomes the coldest layer (this is where you get your lake ice for skating and ice fishing). There’s less sunlight and generally more wind in the
winter. The wind cools the top layer of water further and causes the water to turn over, or mix, causing the colder water to be moved toward the top.
The middle layer is the buffer and the area subject to the quickest temperature change. In the winters this is the layer that tends to mix with the top layer.
The bottom layer remains at a fairly constant temperature. This layer will be the coldest in the summer, but doesn’t cool off too much in the winter. While you may have a lake freeze over, you’ll rarely see the bottom layer freeze.
http://www.untamedscience.com/bio…/biomes/lakes-ponds-biome/
It seems that woodland owners I meet are increasingly warming to the idea that they are really caretakers of their land. They accept the idea that stewarding the land involves not just working to improve its health and well-being now, but also involves planning for who and what comes after their tenure. They are asking questions about how they can ensure that someone who cares for the land will hold it in the future and will pass it forward across generations. ~ Dr. Jim Finley Center for Private Forests at Penn State
“Today, for the first time human history, more people live in cities of more than a million people than live in less urban or rural places. As a result, our connections 
to the land and the values it provides to support ecological functions are eroding. Increasingly, understanding that we depend on the land for our very existence is almost a foreign construct. We appreciate connections to electricity more than we appreciate our connection to and dependence on nature. Today, I believe that our connections to the past and future also erode. We need to understand that the decisions we make about land, woods, and water extend across both space and time.” ~ Dr. Jim Finley Center for Private Forests at Penn State
June 22, 2017 is the 16th anniversary of the Conservation and Preservation Easements Act (Act 29 of 2001)!! This act strengthened the validity and enforceability of conservation easements in Pennsylvania. It also broke new ground in the United States by establishing the principle that when there is ambiguity in the text of an easement document, the courts must resolve the ambiguity in favor of the conservation purposes of the easement and the legislative act. Thank you Pennsylvania Land Trust Association for leading the effort to get this legislation passed!!
It’s National Get Outdoors Day where are you going to celebrate?
It’s an eel!!! Dr. Matt McTammany (Bucknell Biology)and his students were sampling a Union County stream last week to document its conditions before a streambank stabilization project takes place this summer. During their electrofishing they found an eel!!!
Eels were once common in the Susquehanna River watershed but hydroelectric dams began preventing their migration in the 1920s. Several years ago US Fish and Wildlife released juvenile eels in Buffalo Creek and Pine Creek. The eels have spread beyond those drainages as this photos documents.
Thank you to everyone who came out last night for NPC’s annual Membership Meeting at the Peter Herdic House Restaurant. Dennis Ringling and Tom Burkholder were recognized for their service as they leave the Board of Directors. Phyllis Reynolds and Roy Siefert were elected to a second term on the Board, while Adrienne Craig and Tiffani Kase were elected to a first term on the Board. (There was also chocolate mousse cake)
